Welcome, all of you to Hogwarts!
I welcome all of you to school!
Did you know that here at Hogwarts,
We’ve got a magical readathon? [video]
Sorry, couldn’t resist that opening. So now that we’ve all got StarKid stuck in our heads, let’s talk about the Magical Readathon!
I participated in the O.W.L.s portion of this readathon back in April (#TBR + Wrap Up), and now it’s time for me to complete my N.E.W.T.s! For all the information on the N.E.W.T.s (and the Magical Readathon), watch the video here: https://t.co/u7upaZx49c
I’m still planning on becoming a MUGGLE STUDIES PROFESSOR! I completed all the O.W.L.s I needed to take in April (although not by sticking to my #TBR, which was LITERALLY ONE BOOK LONG), so now I need to get an O in Muggle Studies, an E in Defense Against the Dark Arts, and an A in at least two other subjects to be a Professor! I’ve planned out my #TBR, even though we all know I’m going to change my mind.
And now without any further ado, my N.E.W.T.s #TBR:
Author’s Name Starts with B
Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust Published on September 5, 2017 by Flatiron Books
Genres: Fantasy, Retellings, YA, Queer
Pages: 384
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Author Links: Website, Twitter, Goodreads
Sixteen-year-old Mina is motherless, her magician father is vicious, and her silent heart has never beat with love for anyone—has never beat at all, in fact, but she’d always thought that fact normal. She never guessed that her father cut out her heart and replaced it with one of glass. When she moves to Whitespring Castle and sees its king for the first time, Mina forms a plan: win the king’s heart with her beauty, become queen, and finally know love. The only catch is that she’ll have to become a stepmother.
Fifteen-year-old Lynet looks just like her late mother, and one day she discovers why: a magician created her out of snow in the dead queen’s image, at her father’s order. But despite being the dead queen made flesh, Lynet would rather be like her fierce and regal stepmother, Mina. She gets her wish when her father makes Lynet queen of the southern territories, displacing Mina. Now Mina is starting to look at Lynet with something like hatred, and Lynet must decide what to do—and who to be—to win back the only mother she’s ever known…or else defeat her once and for all.
Entwining the stories of both Lynet and Mina in the past and present, Girls Made of Snow and Glass traces the relationship of two young women doomed to be rivals from the start. Only one can win all, while the other must lose everything—unless both can find a way to reshape themselves and their story.
Fire on the Cover or in the Title
Lightbringer by Claire Legrand Series: The Empirium Trilogy #3
Published on October 13, 2020 by Sourcebooks Fire
Genres: Fantasy, YA, Queer
Pages: 592
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Author Links: Website, Goodreads, Pinterest
Two queens separated by a thousand years must face their ultimate destinies.
Queen Rielle, pushed away from everything she loves, turns to Corien and his promises of glory. Meanwhile, whispers from the empirium slowly drive her mad, urging her to open the Gate. Separated from Audric and Ludivine, she embraces the role of Blood Queen and her place by Corien’s side, determined to become the monster the world believes her to be.
In the future, Eliana arrives in the Empire’s capital as a broken shell of herself. Betrayed and abandoned, she fights to keep her power at bay—and away from Corien, who will stop at nothing to travel back in time to Rielle, even if that means destroying her daughter.
But when the mysterious Prophet reveals themselves at last, everything changes, giving Rielle and Eliana a second chance for salvation—or the destruction their world has been dreading.
A Funny Book
My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, Jodi Meadows Series: The Lady Janies #1
Published on June 7, 2016 by HarperTeen
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Retellings, YA
Pages: 512
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Edward (long live the king) is the King of England. He’s also dying, which is inconvenient, as he’s only sixteen and he’d much rather be planning for his first kiss than considering who will inherit his crown…
Jane (reads too many books) is Edward’s cousin, and far more interested in books than romance. Unfortunately for Jane, Edward has arranged to marry her off to secure the line of succession. And there’s something a little odd about her intended…
Gifford (call him G) is a horse. That is, he’s an Eðian (eth-y-un, for the uninitiated). Every day at dawn he becomes a noble chestnut steed—but then he wakes at dusk with a mouthful of hay. It’s all very undignified.
The plot thickens as Edward, Jane, and G are drawn into a dangerous conspiracy. With the fate of the kingdom at stake, our heroes will have to engage in some conspiring of their own. But can they pull off their plan before it’s off with their heads?
A: Thriller
I Killed Zoe Spanos by Kit Frick Published on June 30, 2020 by Margaret K. McElderry Books
Genres: Contemporary, Thriller, YA
Pages: 384
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Author Links: Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Instagram, TikTok
What happened to Zoe won't stay buried...
When Anna Cicconi arrives to the small Hamptons village of Herron Mills for a summer nanny gig, she has high hopes for a fresh start. What she finds instead is a community on edge after the disappearance of Zoe Spanos, a local girl who has been missing since New Year's Eve. Anna bears an eerie resemblance to Zoe, and her mere presence in town stirs up still-raw feelings about the unsolved case. As Anna delves deeper into the mystery, stepping further and further into Zoe's life, she becomes increasingly convinced that she and Zoe are connected--and that she knows what happened to her.
Two months later, Zoe's body is found in a nearby lake, and Anna is charged with manslaughter. But Anna's confession is riddled with holes, and Martina Green, teen host of the Missing Zoe podcast, isn't satisfied. Did Anna really kill Zoe? And if not, can Martina's podcast uncover the truth?
E: Science Fiction
Goddess in the Machine by Lora Beth Johnson Series: Goddess in the Machine #1
Published on June 30, 2020 by Razorbill
Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, YA
Pages: 389
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When Andra wakes up, she's drowning.
Not only that, but she's in a hot, dirty cave, it's the year 3102, and everyone keeps calling her Goddess. When Andra went into a cryonic sleep for a trip across the galaxy, she expected to wake up in a hundred years, not a thousand. Worst of all, the rest of the colonists—including her family and friends—are dead. They died centuries ago, and for some reason, their descendants think Andra's a deity. She knows she's nothing special, but she'll play along if it means she can figure out why she was left in stasis and how to get back to Earth.
Zhade, the exiled bastard prince of Eerensed, has other plans. Four years ago, the sleeping Goddess's glass coffin disappeared from the palace, and Zhade devoted himself to finding it. Now he's hoping the Goddess will be the key to taking his rightful place on the throne—if he can get her to play her part, that is. Because if his people realize she doesn't actually have the power to save their dying planet, they'll kill her.
With a vicious monarch on the throne and a city tearing apart at the seams, Zhade and Andra might never be able to unlock the mystery of her fate, let alone find a way to unseat the king, especially since Zhade hasn't exactly been forthcoming with Andra. And a thousand years from home, is there any way of knowing that Earth is better than the planet she's woken to?
O: Epic Fantasy
Furyborn by Claire Legrand Series: The Empirium Trilogy #1
Published on May 22, 2018 by Sourcebooks Fire
Genres: Fantasy, YA, Queer
Pages: 501
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Author Links: Website, Goodreads, Pinterest
When assassins ambush her best friend, Rielle Dardenne risks everything to save him, exposing herself as one of a pair of prophesied queens: a queen of light, and a queen of blood. To prove she is the Sun Queen, Rielle must endure seven elemental magic trials. If she fails, she will be executed...unless the trials kill her first.
One thousand years later, the legend of Queen Rielle is a fairy tale to Eliana Ferracora. A bounty hunter for the Undying Empire, Eliana believes herself untouchable--until her mother vanishes. To find her, Eliana joins a rebel captain and discovers that the evil at the empire's heart is more terrible than she ever imagined.
As Rielle and Eliana fight in a cosmic war that spans millennia, their stories intersect, and the shocking connections between them ultimately determine the fate of their world--and of each other.
A Book with a Red Cover
Kingsbane by Claire Legrand Series: The Empirium Trilogy #2
Published on May 21, 2019 by Sourcebooks Fire
Genres: Fantasy, YA, Queer
Pages: 608
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Rielle Dardenne has been anointed Sun Queen, but her trials are far from over. The Gate keeping the angels at bay is falling. To repair it, Rielle must collect the seven hidden castings of the saints. Meanwhile, to help her prince and love Audric protect Celdaria, Rielle must spy on the angel Corien—but his promises of freedom and power may prove too tempting to resist.
Centuries later, Eliana Ferracora grapples with her new reality: She is the Sun Queen, humanity's long-awaited savior. But fear of corruption—fear of becoming another Rielle—keeps Eliana's power dangerous and unpredictable. Hunted by all, racing against time to save her dying friend Navi, Eliana must decide how to wear a crown she never wanted—by embracing her mother's power, or rejecting it forever.
Historical Fiction
My Plain Jane by Cynthia Hand, Jodi Meadows, Brodi Ashton Series: The Lady Janies #2
Published on June 26, 2018 by HarperTeen
Genres: Historical Fiction, Retellings, YA
Pages: 447
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You may think you know the story. After a miserable childhood, penniless orphan Jane Eyre embarks on a new life as a governess at Thornfield Hall. There, she meets one dark, brooding Mr. Rochester. Despite their significant age gap (!) and his uneven temper (!!), they fall in love—and, Reader, she marries him. (!!!)
Or does she?
Prepare for an adventure of Gothic proportions, in which all is not as it seems, a certain gentleman is hiding more than skeletons in his closets, and one orphan Jane Eyre, aspiring author Charlotte Brontë, and supernatural investigator Alexander Blackwood are about to be drawn together on the most epic ghost hunt this side of Wuthering Heights.
A: Graphic Novel
The Deep & Dark Blue by Niki Smith Published on January 7, 2020 by Brown Books for Young Readers, Little
Genres: Fantasy, Middle Grade, Queer
Pages: 256
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After a terrible political coup usurps their noble house, Hawke and Grayson flee to stay alive and assume new identities, Hanna and Grayce. Desperation and chance lead them to the Communion of Blue, an order of magical women who spin the threads of reality to their will.
As the twins learn more about the Communion, and themselves, they begin to hatch a plan to avenge their family and retake their royal home.While Hawke wants to return to his old life, Grayce struggles to keep the threads of her new life from unraveling, and realizes she wants to stay in the one place that will allow her to finally live as a girl.
E: Written by an Author of a Different Race Than You
Each of Us a Desert by Mark Oshiro Published on September 15, 2020 by Tor Teen
Genres: Fantasy, YA, Queer
Pages: 432
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Author Links: Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Instagram, Tumblr
Xochital is destined to wander the desert alone, speaking her troubled village's stories into its arid winds. Her only companions are the blessed stars above and enimagic lines of poetry magically strewn across dusty dunes.
Her one desire: to share her heart with a kindred spirit.
One night, Xo's wish is granted—in the form of Emilia, the cold and beautiful daughter of the town's murderous mayor. But when the two set out on a magical journey across the desert, they find their hearts could be a match... if only they can survive the nightmare-like terrors that arise when the sun goes down.
O: Contemporary
Love, Creekwood by Becky Albertalli Series: Creekwood #3.5
Published on June 30, 2020 by Balzer + Bray
Genres: Contemporary, YA, Queer
Pages: 111
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Author Links: Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Instagram, Tumblr
It’s been more than a year since Simon and Blue turned their anonymous online flirtation into an IRL relationship, and just a few months since Abby and Leah’s unforgettable night at senior prom.
Now the Creekwood High crew are first years at different colleges, navigating friendship and romance the way their story began—on email.
So you may have noticed that I switched one of my prompts for DADA. The original prompt was “an impactful book” and I just don’t know how you would know that until after you’d already read it? Which makes it a little hard to plan for on a TBR, so I switched it! I’m calling it part of my Magical 504 Plan and saying that it was necessary to switch them so that I could complete my tasks. And now before I get onto a tangent about the need for special education at Hogwarts, let’s wrap this up.
As a reminder, to be a Muggle Studies Professor, I need to get N.E.W.T.s in:
- Muggle Studies (O)
- A: The Deep, Dark Blue by Niki Smith
- E: Each of Us a Desert by Mark Oshiro
- O: Love, Creekwood by Becky Albertalli
- Defense Against the Dark Arts (E)
- A: I Killed Zoe Spanos by Kit Frick
- E: Goddess in the Machine by Lora Beth Johnson
- O: Furyborn by Claire Legrand
- At least 2 other subjects (A)
- Ancient Runes (A)
- Girls of Snow by Melissa Bashardoust
- Care of Magical Creatures (A)
- Lightbringer by Claire Legrand
- Charms (A)
- My Lady Jane by the Lady Janies
- Divination (A)
- Kingsbane by Claire Legrand
- History of Magic (A)
- My Plain Jane by the Lady Janies
- Ancient Runes (A)
That’s an O in Muggle Studies and an E in Defense Against the Dark Arts, plus an A in two of the following: Ancient Runes, Care of Magical Creatures, Charms, Divination, or History of Magic.
Will I stick to my TBR? Almost certainly not! But I still had lots of fun creating it and setting a goal for myself!
So that’s what I’m planning on reading! Are you participating in the Magical Readathon? Let me know what you’re planning to read (and what your Wizarding Career will be!) in the comments and have a splendiferous day!
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